Claire Cartmill

Tourism Ireland and two Northern Ireland tourism enterprises, the Giant’s Causeway and Titanic Belfast, are taking part in a VisitBritain ‘GREAT’ sales mission to India this week – in a bid to grow our share of this emerging tourism market.

Over the next five days, the Northern Ireland companies will meet, and conclude deals with, leading Indian tour operators and travel agents in the key cities of New Delhi, Gurgaon and Mumbai. The objective is to encourage the Indian travel professionals to extend their Northern Ireland offering, or to include Northern Ireland for the first time, in their 2016 and 2017 brochures and programmes.

Amanda Burns, Tourism Ireland’s Manager Asia, said: “Tourism Ireland is delighted to be part of the ‘GREAT’ VisitBritain sales mission to India this week – helping us spread the word about what a great place Northern Ireland is to visit. India is one of the fastest-growing markets for outbound travel in the world and Tourism Ireland will undertake a busy programme of promotions in 2016, to grow Indian visitor numbers to Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland. Our sales mission this week is an important element of our promotional programme in India, to win a greater share of the 2.4 million Indian visitors who travel to Europe each year.

“We will continue to highlight the British-Irish Visa Scheme, reminding Indian travellers that they now can visit Ireland and the United Kingdom on a single visa. We are working closely with our colleagues in VisitBritain, to leverage the benefits of the scheme in both India and China.”

With a rapidly-increasing middle class and rising disposable incomes, the number of Indian people travelling overseas has grown by about +10% over the past year; and forecasts for the coming years suggest even greater growth.